Best Holding Poems
In visions of yesteryear where there was love
Nothing but despair on the faces of hope
And shattered remains of a romantic fairytale
Whose happy ending has been snatched away
Yet, I grind sand-grains hoping to make water
Counting blindly on the blessings of a miracle
Knowing well indeed it's a futile effort
Like looking for sun when the night has fallen
Mystique is still there much like it was then
But happy tears have been doomed by sadness
And the memories are demanding a hefty price
Making it much harder and expensive to cry
The rhythm I hear is the pulse of your song
When words were precious like diamonds are
But they are free now for no one responds
When I call you by name in voices of the past
It's been so long since you've been gone
Smiles that were friendly now wear a frown
Until I fantasize about the days full of awe
Holding back the time to hold you in my heart
But if you must go, I feel the need to know
Do you ever look back, do you say hello
To the years that used to be music to our souls
And sit there to dream and wish there was more
Written: May 17, 2019
Submitted on January 5, 2023 to:
2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 24 Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Mark Toney
Poem of the day on May 19, 2019
Placed 2nd: Your choice (6) contest by Brian Strand
Placed 2nd: Musical Inspiration Poetry Contest by Joseph May
Song: Holding Back the Years
I wish love could be a river
Flowing through the trees
Sparkling like crystal waters
So I can drink her as I please
But this love she's complicated
She often brings me to my knees
My need is like a fever
That feels like a disease
At times she make me strong
I feel like the mighty oak
Other times she wraps so tightly
In her embrace I start to choke
At times she feels so solid
And then she turns to smoke
When I think in terms of forever
She laughs like it's a joke
Yes, I want her to be a river
Flowing through the trees
Sparkling like crystal waters
So I can drink her as I please
But love she's complicated
She often brings me to my knees
My need is like a fever
That feels like a disease
When the years turned into shouts
Love didn't love me any more
What was broke just couldn't be fixed
Love kept me locked outside her door
She once had made me happy
Then in two my heart was tore
I had wished upon her forever
Instead she abandoned me on the shore
Then I went down to the ocean
There I found love near the sand
She was not mine to control
Her nature I could not command
Love, she's far too complicated
Her I may never fully understand
When I try to hold her to tightly
She slips easily from my hand
So I dive into her ocean
Feel her cure my heart's dis-ease
She becomes my endless pleasure
She says "Do with me as you please"
Time is no longer important
I travel her ocean like a breeze
Love she was always forever
Now I enjoy her with such ease
So if you want love to be a river
Flowing through the trees
Sparkling like crystal waters
So you can drink her as you please
Try not to hold her tightly
if you wish to cure your hearts dis-ease
Love she can gift you forever
or leave you broken on your knees!
Just keep holding on
I know to you, the world doesn't feel right
I know, you gave up, you gave up the fight
I know, to you, the world is your enemy
I know, you feel, you feel you'll never be free
Chorus
So Just keep holding on...
the nights almost over...
soon will come the dawn
Just keep holding on...
relinquish all your sorrow...
pray to make it to tomorrow
Just keep holding on,
The future will be brighter
Just keep holding on
The sun will always rise again
So Just keep holding on
Just keep holding on
I know, how you feel,
like the world is coming to an end
I know how you feel,
Like you haven't got a friend
I know how you feel,
Like everything goes so wrong
I know how you feel,
You don't feel very strong
I know how you feel,
you feel like you don't belong.
So just keep holding on
Just keep holding
Chorus
So just keep holding on...
the nights almost over,
soon will come the dawn...
Just keep holding on
relinquish all your sorrow,
pray to make it to tomorrow
Just keep holding on...
The future will be brighter
Just keep holding on...
The sun will always rise again
So Just keep holding on
Just keep holding on
John Derek Hamilton
January 28,2017
Just An Old Poet, Holding On Until I Die
I write verse, live in the moment and score the past
oft revealing naked truths that set some aghast,
yet with rhyme and reason, I ink stain each white page,
some even tried to knock me off the poet's stage.
Tho' pen, paper and I felt no panicking fear
my course was set, but it was not always so clear,
wrote furiously for a time, to make my mark,
world brutally beat me, prospects were very stark.
As time flowed on by, and with wisdom slowly gained
inking pages, I saw they were not so badly stained,
life had given perspective and a renewed lease
although not Jason, I had found my golden fleece.
Just an old poet, holding on until I die
poetry is my treasure, do not ask me why!
Sonnet: 6-14-2018
On your mulberry canvas
I inscribed my tangerine sun
Cached behind a dark rock
When violet dawn broke
Beneath orchid clouds
Your lilac brushstrokes arose
From steel-blue ocean
As gentle winds tickled
Platinum-hued ripples
I sprinkled orange glow
Where you embossed
Shades of ruby-desire
On pink-rose magenta
Floating on purple fire
In silence we held hands
Celebrating romance
Ablaze in our own aura
That you and I sparked
Holding daybreak in pause
July 25, 2018
NOTE: Sunrise in Marblehead, MA
Placed first in Standard contest #105 by Brian Strand
What’s in her mind, sharp lines slice her in half,
Into faded dark red, green and blue,
And the flowers cover up each emotional scar,
From ever even shining on through,
To show the gouges ripped from her thoughts,
To show the bruised, shaken, and torn,
Slit while she slept, in a nightmare of hell,
For her public body to remain an unborn?
What does she think, where does she go,
When her eyes are wide open to black,
When her eyes are blank to all of the noise,
After her soul escaped the attack?
Does she remember those days that’ve gone,
When she obeyed every little demand?
Does she remember those days when she sold her soul,
Just to hold onto his hand?
There is a rain deluge in the cemetery today,
as I open the intricate old gate;
I am lost in a sea of gray,
stones worn old and ornate;
a maze of twisting trails,
step-ruined from all the years;
stones with faded details,
a deep sadness fills me and I hold back tears;
death is an unwanted guest who comes unbidden,
and toppled stones touch like friends;
moss leaving names hidden,
I am on a path that bends;
and now I complete my quest,
but fall to my knees weeping;
for our stone is moss distressed,
on all sides covered and with lichen creeping;
o, sorrow and grief the old cemetery is in disrepair,
I breathe in the smell of decay;
and notice moss is everywhere,
out of place is my bright bouquet.
"I place my flowers and holding back tears turn away."
________________
July 29, 2021
Poetry/Rhyme/Holding Back Tears
Copyright Protected, ID 07-1376-328-29
All Rights Reserved, 2021, Constance La France
Title and Theme chosen - Holding Back Tears
Written for the Standard contest, This or That, Vol. 5
sponsor, Edward Ibeh, Judged 08/19/2021
First Place
Dazzling golden beams
star spangling
when I look into your eyes
dreams enchanting magic
Sparkling treasure gems
through sun smiling thoughts
Warm rays in her deep fingers
one touching light beaming
In your smile stands out
A rose blossoms heart of this soul
flowers so hot amazing beautiful
blooming embracing light
as your angel rays dances
outside this world with the heart
in each beat that pounds loving you
I carried it on my lap all the way to you,
The bus ride was so long, so long, Mom;
Lost in old memories of you and me, together,
I just looked out the window all the way.
Holding a wilting red rose ~
The gate of the cemetery creaked as usual,
The path filled with many crumbling leaves;
Cool wind took my long raven hair blowing it back,
I felt my tears falling as I neared your tomb.
Holding a wilting red rose ~
I stood for a long time with my eyes closed,
The words carved in stone and in my heart;
Feeling the pride of a daughter for a wonderful Mom,
I fell to my knees weeping for what is lost.
Holding a wilting red rose ~
Then at last I rose and dried the forever tears,
I touched the words carved on your cold tomb;
And retraced my steps down the path, closing the gate,
I boarded the bus and was soon lost in thought.
Holding a wilting red rose ~
. . . . . still
________________________________
May 11, 2014
Poetry/Verse/Holding a wilting red rose
Copyright Protected, ID 05-565-847-11
All Rights Reserved, 2014, Constance La France
holding Abigail in my arms
my cat is treated to lessons mother
passed on to me
bury your face in her neck
and gently rub your cheek
she will arch backward into the nuzzling
chew softly on her ears
the more you pay attention
to the back of the head
the brain will fire neuropathways
and the memories of mother
will come thru
she pulls back into that look
where we take turns rubbing cheeks
cheek to cheek we declare we belong
to one another
Anatole France noted until you
have loved an animal
you are only a half soul
sometimes my nights need a bit more
to settle the day's dust
the little bottle in the bathroom
comes in the same pink box
i remember wrapping at Christmas
the joy in that present for her
and that is all it takes
full concentration for the night's list
of those in my deepest prayer
one little spray from that bottle
and i am in church next to my mother
lost in the wonderment of a congregation
devoted to the good of mankind
united in prayer and song
such are the neuropathways of mother
God's creatures are blessed as such
mother and a single spray
of White Shoulders
OKC 2/23
Holding On To Love (Ten Word Challenge - 2)
Not even the TACTILE, brown sands of time can erase
my Beloved’s LUSCIOUS taste. BITTERSWEET dreams
wrapped in pink ribbons arouse my soul like QUIESCENT,
rhythmic raindrops tip-tip-toeing on AMBIVALENT seashores.
FLAMBOYANT and ARCANE as a rare, white peacock,
my Beloved is the QUINTESSENCE of my being.
His love requires not the IMMOLATION of self.
For he’s my INTERCESSOR guiding me through
the shadows of night into the clarity of day.
11-13-2016
Contest: Ten Word Challenge - 2
Sponsor: John Hamilton
Placement: 2nd
You swallow billions in cash, yet your assault strengthens,
everything with life now stands on one side against you
but your unpredictability is what gives you this audacity.
Your sarcasm and indifference to mankind
may seem to amputate medical science
but even on wheel-chairs,
we will hold hands together, never giving up.
You now pass through numerous gates
to the fat, slim, male and female;
to the adults, kids, rich and poor;
to drunkards, smokers, abstained or perverse;
to the omnivore, vegan, sexually active or not;
to the religious, spiritual, free thinker or non-thinking.
You shoot them all in an unfair rampage
making the task so herculean for you to be controlled.
Your spread plays the gruesome music of death
inviting the straws of extinction to sap life out in slow sips.
The more your covered distance, the more your torment.
Towards the end of the road, your merciless afflictions
are an indication, nature can acquire a bad side.
You come with a red card held by a fatal hand
then go with a white one with the inscription of a soul.
All humanity fight, but our blows seem not to reach you.
For long, we’ve taken your jabs
and being on the receiving end is becoming so protracted.
But we’ll hold steadfast, never giving in to a knock-out;
staying strong, united and hopeful,
that someday, victory will be hope's fashion
for the new dawn to be here permanently.
As the morning sun
smiles warmly with colour
upon you my love
It's all around embraced within a circle
kissing each and every single breath
inside jumping heartbeats pop
A moonbeam enters softly embraced
your the light of destiny kissed
beautiful rose shining gold gift wrapped
Amazing with the dewdrops
your sparkle dwells in the heart
guiding this soul lovingly home
I can see heaven in your eyes
where chocolate melts like carmel
into heartbeats golden honeycombed
unrhymed tercets
When granny was still alive
she used to tell me~
" Don't cry when I die,
for tears are melted salt
that had escaped from oceans;
Spare your tears, spare your salt,
Just sing me a song~
a song I first taught you."
Two decades ago, she bade adieu,
and in front of her coffin,
With eyes frozen,I stood still
holding back my tears~
the hardest thing to do;
It rained in my heart
as I began to sing her,
"Que Sera, Sera ( What ever will be, will be)".
Grandma, whatever will be, will be!
Your love shall dwell in me;
The tears I held back ~
were copious tears
that flowed in my sullen heart.
Now my tears I could hold back never more
Like unceasing cascading stream~
resolutely rushing on
as I stand here~
in front of your tombstone.
18 August 2021
This or That Vol 5 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Edward Ibeh
4th place
A Brian Strand Informel Poetry Contest
1st place
To the tune of Simon And Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound"
for the music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs_YQ6JuNpA
When I asked you to the County Fair
You had just rolled your eyes and twirled your hair
Got down on one knee to plead
Come with me, baby, pretty please
We'll have a ball, I'm begging you
I will get you back, by your curfew
Holding on
I needed you
Holding on
Hold, back my tears from making
Hold, back my heart from breaking
Hold, back the time from taking
Taking you from me
Smiled like I had passed the test
You helped me up and whispered "yes"
We kissed so hard that I couldn't see
Why a girl like you, wanted me
You kissed me every car we passed
Then we made sweet love, at last
Holding on
I needed you
Holding on
Hold, back my tears from making
Hold, back my heart from breaking
Hold, back the time from taking
Taking you from me
Our first ride was the Ferris Wheel
I rocked the chair until you squealed
Kissed every time we went around
That balloon we lost, never found
That big old Teddy Bear you craved
Merry Go Round rings, that we saved
Holding on
I needed you
Holding on
Hold, back my tears from making
Hold, back my heart from breaking
Hold, back the time from taking
Taking you from me
Taking you from me